Kelvin Obambon|22 July 2018
The public lecture organized by the Post Graduate Students' Government (PGSG) of the University of Calabar, during the week, eventually turned into a debate of sort between Chief (Barr.) Okoi Obono-Obla, senior special assistant to the president on prosecution and Hon. (Pastor) Nelson Ofem, member representing Yakurr I State Constituency at the Cross River State House of Assembly.
Chief Obono-Obla, one of the guest speakers, had earlier delivered a lecture titled, ''The Place of Anti-graft Agencies in Nigeria Change Agenda'', and Hon. Nelson Ofem, who represented the keynote speaker, Rt. Hon. Bassey Eko Ewa, had also delivered a keynote address captioned, ''Change -The Rhetorics, The Realities''.
It was during the question and answer session, while both dignitaries were responding to questions from a cross section of the audience that the dice was cast through the behaviour and body language of the audience, who were mostly students.
While Chief (Barr.) Okoi Obono-Obla dabbled impulsively for words to address questions flunged at him -questions bothering on the performance of the APC-led Federal Government, and particularly on insecurity and the recently concluded Ekiti governorship election, Hon. Nelson Ofem had a field day as he eloquently and intelligently articulated his positions on issues raised by the audience. This earned him unanimous approval of the audience as applause, cheering and standing ovation decorated the atmosphere.
Unlike his counterpart, the presidential aide got extremely poor reception each time he stood up to speak, as rowdiness and booing held the tranquil ambience hostage.
This happened repeatedly that it took the intervention of the dean, school of post graduate studies, Prof. Arikpo B. Arikpo to calmed the wailing audience, paving way for Chief Obla to speak. But even at that, the audience still broke loose.
Could this be a contest between the PDP and the APC?
Obambon blogs for NegroidHaven
